Water Under the Bridge
by SophisticatedIgnorance
Summary: Hatred, that was possibly the only way that you could describe their relationship. But it wasn't always like that. There was a time where they were inseparable but that was a long time ago. When they are forced to compete against each other yet again, old demons surface and so do old tendencies. Will they ever get back to that point or will it all just be water under the bridge?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Ok so this is my first fanfiction so bring the fire don't be gentle with me. Second the rating will be changed from T, I'm just not sure when or what chapter so bear with me. I hope you enjoy this and let me know how you feel with reviews, I'd love to hear from you. Now on with the show.**

I hated her. Although this had rung true for quite some time, I couldn't quite place my finger on the moment it was blatantly obvious or even the moment that I had started to have the aversion that I had acquired towards her. Don't get me wrong she was stunningly beautiful, she came from money and was everything a sane person could have possibly asked for. She had the same quick wit, passion filled anger, and perfectionist attitude that I did and that served to show that only opposites attract. I couldn't stand her unbelievable compulsion to try and beat me out in everything that we both desired for nor her need to fuck all my ex-boyfriends.

Or maybe I couldn't stand how perfect she was. The rich family, the well-respected father, the Ivy League and ex-head cheerio sister, the prudish, too good for anyone else mentality, the perfect life. She reveled in it. It was admirable, I must say but it still pissed me off.

I just couldn't quite jump on board with all the other bumbling idiots that thought she was God's gift to earth. It was that plain and simple.

But who was I kidding? I knew better than anyone how fucked up her life was. I knew what an ass Russell could really be. I knew that her mother would never stick up for her and Fran no matter how wrong their father ever was. I had been there to see a few of his many, many outbursts only to watch Judy cower out and never say anything. And I knew that the only way Judy dealt with her guilt over it was fancy wine and aged bourbon.

Whenever things got crazy, she always came to me. She cried to me. She told me things that I'm sure to this day she's never told anyone else. She trusted me, took shelter in me. But that was before. Before it all changed and all started crashing down. Before we became who we are today.

I tried for years to try and act like she didn't get to me but I'm not one to be secretive of my emotions. I essentially wear my heart on my sleeve and I couldn't hide how she made me feel.

I don't know how it came to be that the two of us became so distant. We weren't always like this. When I first met Quinn in sixth grade I thought she was a bitch but this was a good thing, she reminded me of me and I valued that in a person. So long as they weren't that way with me, the HBIT of McKinley, we were good. We ruled the school together, as a team. We were Batman and Robin. Bonnie and Clyde. The Don and Clemenza. But then somewhere between eighth grade and freshman year it all changed. Quinn started to realize what a threat to my reign she could be and had no qualms with using it to her advantage. We've been torn ever since. We only interacted on a daily basis for two reasons and two reasons only: the Cheerios and Brittany.

Brittany.

The only reason I was ever nice to anyone. Our relationship, and I do use that term loosely, was so completely different than the volatility that was Quinn and I's relationship. Britt made me want to be a better person and I loved her with all my being. She could do no wrong and I'm pretty sure I even worshipped the ground she walked on.

I couldn't help myself, though. She was so beautiful and one of the only two girls I'd ever loved. It didn't matter how many times she left me for Wheels, or tried to push me out of the closet, or drunk made out with some guy at a party after doing the same to me only minutes before, I still loved her. Britt was everything to me. She made me want to really aspire to be something and without her who knows what kind of terror I could've inflicted onto McKinley high or to myself.

She tried to better me with her pseudo-intervention and attempted to get me into Louisville on scholarship, but I knew that cheer wasn't where my heart was. But New York and medicine were. Now here I was two months later, starting classes at NYU, embarking on being an adult when I was just an eighteen-year-old girl graduating from high school. It all seemed so sudden.

"Mija, we're going to be late. You don't want to miss your flight, Santanita, it's the only one for the rest of the day." My mother called to me. I sighed. I knew she was right but was I ready to leave everything that I had worked so hard to build in the last thirteen years of my life.

I took one last look around my bedroom. There would be no more sneaking out of the house to go to another of Puck's stupid parties or hiding liquor in my shoeboxes. No more sleepovers with Quinn, Britt and I with Brittany sandwiched between us so that we wouldn't kill one another. No more heavy make out sessions with Britt or crying in my bathroom once I found out that she loved Wheels or that she wasn't going to graduate with the rest of us.

Maybe it was a good thing. Maybe it was best that I went far away in order to chase the dreams that I knew that I deserved. Maybe all I needed was to forget it all and start fresh. Maybe this wasn't a bad thing at all.

"Santana!"

"I'm coming!" As I turned to go, I saw a picture that Quinn had given me the summer before freshman year. I had tucked it away and hid it from myself. It was only fitting that I'd find it now. The picture had a younger Quinn and I hugging each other tightly with the biggest smiles on our faces- it had been from the day of Quinn's birthday a few months before my own- and the caption _"I don't know what I'd do without you. You encourage me to be who I want to be and you make me so happy. You're my other half and I love you, Santana. Love, Q."_

It almost seemed to taunt me and make me wonder _'What had happened to us? Where did we go wrong? What turned us from those happy girls to the people we are today?'_

I'd be lying If I said I didn't know what happened if I said that I didn't know the answer to my own questions. Those memories were forever etched on me so how could I ever forget? But what could I do? It happened and nothing could change it.

Closing the door to my room, I shook my head and sighed. Maybe this wasn't a bad thing after all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: I'm glad that you guys have so far enjoyed my story and it's honestly been quite shocking but nonetheless thank you! Also, in case anyone was wondering HBIT= head bitch in training. Also, I'm serious. If something is eating you about my story, don't be afraid to tell me and let me know how you feel. I won't break lol. Finally, I don't want to be that person who just puts their shit out and has no regard for its consistency and its quality. Long story short I'm looking for a beta to help this story be the best it can be so any takers just PM me so we can link up and get down to business. Ok, I'm done. Now on with the show.**

I slowly looked around and took a moment to take in my surroundings. I had only been here once before and though the memory was still relatively fresh, I couldn't soak it up when I'd come here with the glee club like I could now. The city was absolutely glowing with the hustle and bustle of the streets that were littered with people, taxis, and cars. The buildings were tall and almost never ending while the afternoon dusk gave the city a bright and glowing appearance. There were bright lights and billboards advertising everything from local colleges and studios to the restaurants and attractions that adorned Times Square. It was somewhat magical yet as someone bump into me without so much as a double take I couldn't help but think that the people were rude, preoccupied and in a hurry; my kind of city.

The pent up apprehension that I had experienced while I was home seemed to disperse the longer I looked at this electric yet dingy city. It was astonishing to say the least.

I made my way through the hordes of people and attempted to pick up a cab only to be passed up by several. I held my hand out once more in my last ditch effort to get a ride out to my awaiting apartment and was able to get a cabbie's attention.

Relieved, I opened the door with every intention of getting in until a rather dapper business man jumped into my cab.

He offered me a half-assed apology of "Sorry lady," before unapologetically closing the door and pulling away in my cab.

I turned towards one of the light poles and gave it a relatively hard kick in frustration.

"Dammit!" This was not ok. I had never had to fight for something from anyone or go out of my way to get something, with the exception of any time I dealt with Quinn, and the fact that I couldn't even get a cab without being passed by or having it stolen from me left me utterly frustrated. I slumped against said light pole hopelessly and contemplated taking the subway out of the city instead. It couldn't be that bad, right?

"You look like you need a little help there."

I looked up to where the voice had come from to find the most stunning blonde girl looking on amusingly at me. Her eyes were the crispest, sharpest shade of piercing green I'd ever seen and her hair was up in a messy, but cute, bun. She wore nothing fancy, just a plain t-shirt and a pair of jeans with scuffed up converse that had been written and drawn all over but she made it looked good and effortless. I had never been one to completely swoon over beauty but she soon became the first woman that had rendered me speechless. She seem to catch on to my surprised and admirable gaze and smirked slightly at me.

"You know you aren't really that discreet?" She inquired leaving me caught off guard until I saw the playful glint in her eyes. She was joking but that didn't help assuage my embarrassment nor did it coax me into saying anything remotely intelligent.

"I… um… Uh-what?"

"I said 'you look like you need help'," She repeated while motioning towards the space where my cab had been.

"No, I just- I just missed my cab. It's not a big deal. I'll just get another one." She raised an unbelieving eyebrow at me chuckled at my shaky response.

"Look, I've been watching you for the last five minutes. I've seen the cabs pass you up and I saw that broker steal your cab, which if you keep taking them out of the city, is going to happen more than once."

"You've been stalking me?"

She looked at me amusingly. "No, I wouldn't call it stalking, just watching. I mean can you blame me, though?" She smirked again and gave me the slightest hint of a wink before continuing "If you really want to get somewhere you take the subway." She pointed towards a nearby staircase that led directly to the underground train system.

"I'd prefer not to," She raised an eyebrow silently in question at me, "there's no particular reason I just kind of would prefer to take a cab."

She smiled, understandably so, and proceeded to walk past me to the edge of the street. "Well then here's a little cab 101. If you really want to hail a cab, you have to be patient and persistent. You wouldn't want to miss one because you were slacking." She joked finishing with the most radiant and bright smile.

She stood waiting diligently for the next cab to approach us and immediately flagged him down.

As it pulled over she turned to me only to witness the look of utter surprise washing over my face before she began chuckling, turning to open the door.

"How'd you do that? I had like five of those pass me by before I got one to stop for me." I irritatedly questioned.

"Let's call it years and years of experience, shall we," She smiled and for the first time since we'd encountered each other, began to size me up.

"You know, you aren't really that discreet." I kid using her joke from earlier against her. She giggled and just smiled lazily at me when her laughter subsided.

"Split it with me? The cab I mean." She clarified when I raised a questioning eyebrow at her.

"I don't know. I just met you and for all I know, you could be a crazy person who wants to hang me in their living room bound by my hands and feet and gagged as decoration."

She stared at me, completely floored by my rather morbid scenario.

"Ok, um, I'm not one of those people. I can assure you that."

"And what if you are?"

She took a second to consider my question before replying with the easiest smile, "Well then I'll pay the whole fare. How's that? We got a deal?"

"Hmm…" I looked at her expecting face and I didn't know what it was but she made me give in "Yeah, I guess we do."

She smiled brightly and let me get into the cab first. "After you ma' lady," She joked before directing her next words to the driver, "Wherever the lady needs to go, that's where we're headed."

"1911 Dorchester Road, please."

"No problem lady."

We sat in silence for what seemed like ages watching as the scenery changed from skyscraper buildings and flashing lights to brownstones and smaller yet equally important landmarks. The people began to thin out and the hordes of men and women on the commute began to change to lesser families. As we got closer to my new apartment it finally hit me. I'm taking a cab with a random girl who I think is the epitome of stunning but I know nothing about. I don't even know her name or if she was from the city.

It was too soon to say the least. With my failed attempt at Louisville and my botched long distance relationship with Brittany, it was all just too fresh. Coupled with the fact that I didn't know where I was going or what I was doing, which I'm sure was clearly apparent now, it was overwhelming and starting to catch up with me. I was simply trying to have a fresh start and forget all about Lima, within reason of course, and instead I was sabotaging that for myself by taking a cab with a mystery girl and potentially going to get hung from a ceiling and called "art".

She was the one to break the silence first. "So where you from?"

"How do you know I'm not from the city?" I asked almost shocked. How'd she know that I wasn't from the city?

"You kidding?" She glanced at me disbelievingly from the corner of her eye but continued to humor me. "Well first things first, you can't hail a cab to save your life. You're stubborn and fast paced like a New Yorker and you got pretty tough skin but you said please to the cabbie when you gave him the address. That within itself gave you away. My first guess was you were a tourist but that wouldn't make sense considering you gave him an apartment address and not a hotel address, plus tourist usually stay in Times Square or at least somewhere near and you're doing neither by staying all the way in Brooklyn. So based on that, how old you look, and the time of year, I'd have to say that you're here for school." She finished as she looked over to me with a victorious smirk and I couldn't help but to chuckle at her.

"So am I right?"

She looked so unbelievably hopeful I didn't have the heart to egg her on. "Yeah, you caught me."

"Ah yeah. I'm the man!" I laughed at her antics and geared up to ask a question of my own. "So what about you?"

"What do you mean?" She asked me puzzledly.

"What brings you here?"

"Ah… Well, I was born and raised in Brooklyn where I also currently reside. My moms is Italian and my dad's side of the family is Dutch. It's a family joke that that's where I get my blonde hair from but I'm not really sure, I never met him. I'm nineteen, I have two older sisters and a younger brother, and I'm currently sharing a cab with a girl that I think is gorgeous but, unfortunately, hasn't told me her name yet." She finished with another of her sly smirks.

I looked back out the window in order to cover my blush before replying, "Well in my defense you haven't told me yours either."

"Touché," she chuckled, "Touché."

I turned back to look at her with a small smile on my face to find her smiling brightly back at me. I couldn't help but to just stare into her eyes. They were so beautiful that I could simply get lost in them. I watched intently as those said eyes flicked down and lingered a while on my lips. Teasingly, I licked them and smirked as she paled and swallowed slightly. She was beautiful. Her brilliant smile started to ease into a comfortable, lazy one as she slowly looked back into my eyes and we sat in silence as we just stared at each other.

"This is your stop," The cabbie interrupted, breaking the moment that we'd just momentarily shared.

"Well," I flusteredly began as I opened the door, "this is where I need to get off." I didn't wait for her as I hurried out of the cab.

As I was making my way up the steps, I felt someone reach out and grab me. I turned around quickly and defensively ready to let them have it until I saw her standing there with my phone. I must have dropped it.

"As much as I would like to pawn this," she joked as she handed it back to me, "I believe this belongs to you."

"How'd you get ahold of this?"

"It slipped out of your pocket when you rushed out the cab." She teased.

"I- Thanks."

"No problem. But you know how you could really thank me?" I raised an eyebrow in question, asking for her to continue, "By telling me your name."

I laughed heartily at her. She was rather endearing.

"It's Santana."

"Santana, huh," she tested my name out and simply smiled before replying as she headed back to her cab, "I think I like that."

"Wait," I called before she could get too far away, "I don't know yours."

She chuckled and called back, "That's for me to know and you to find out."

With that she closed the door, waved minutely and took off, leaving me shocked yet pleasantly so, on my apartment front steps.

* * *

I was floating. Or at least, it felt that way. As twirled my phone in my hands I couldn't help but think back to the blonde bombshell that had decided to grace me with her presence. Though I'd only just met her, there was something so oddly familiar yet so shockingly riveting that I just couldn't get her out of my head. It was crazy the way she had affected me and I tried my best to occupy myself with something else, anything else, than her. I could not get caught up in this right now especially not after Brittany.

It was quiet as I slowly tread up the steps to my apartment. The building was nothing fancy with its plain cream walls and shabby paintings covering said walls. It was a rather simple apartment complex. I'd wanted to get my own but with the particular area and new surroundings, my parents prohibited it, only allowing me to live off campus if I had a roommate. Luckily for me I knew them, both of them to be exact.

I stood on the other side of the heavy metal door and tried to brace myself for what was coming next. After standing there for a few minutes, I realized that nothing was going to prepare me for the onslaught that I just knew was coming, however, that realization didn't stop me from praying to every deity that they weren't on the other side of that door. The sounds of scuffling feet and belts of what I could only assume was Barbra Streisand karaoke were dead giveaways that my prayers weren't going to be answered.

"Well, here goes nothing," I shakily spoke as I raised my hand to knock twice on the door, "a fresh start."

I watched in horror as the karaoke abruptly stopped and those said feet went still only to start up again and head in my direction. I took a deep breath when I heard the first lock click. I wasn't ready. This was a mistake. I couldn't do this. It wasn't too late to turn around and pretend that I had not even been there but the overdramatic squeal of joy from a certain midget let me know that I was in fact too late.

"Santana!" Rachel gleefully rasped while engulfing me in an amazingly tight bear hug, "You made it."

"Alright, alright," I began while trying fruitlessly to get Rachel's arms off me, "hands off Barry."

"Oh sorry, I forgot no hugging," She apologized, letting go of me almost immediately as I nodded in agreement, "Oh, I am just so glad that you're here, though. Come on in and I'll show you around and to your room and what not."

She grabbed one of my suitcases and began to babble on and on about what was what in the apartment, what was going on in her life, and how NYADA was going for her. I only nodded or added some other form of input when I felt it necessary or when she would look at me expectantly. It was the Rachel Berry show from the start to its never ending finish. Some things never seemed to change.

"So this is your room or your side of the apartment, I should say," she explained motioning towards the curtained-off area in one of the corners of the rather large studio. Looking somewhat embarrassed by her less than impressive apartment get up, she continued, "This was kind of an impromptu decision for me and Kurt and for us it works but that was just with the two of us and trust me I would completely understand if you needed more space for yourself." She sporadically finished.

"Berry, it's fine. I know this was more of a short notice type of thing and I completely understand." I soothed. I wasn't a big Rachel berry fan but if there was one thing I had ever learned in all my years of dealing with her I learned that sympathizing with what she complained about and stroking her ego were extremely easy ways to earn brownie points and the last thing I needed was to be kicked out of my new place.

"Are you sure, Santana?" I nodded as she looked expectantly at me and watched as she beamed with joy.

"Great! I'm so glad you're here Santana. Oh, we're going to have so much fun! Just wait til Kurt gets here. We going to go look at the city and go to only the best karaoke bars and then you can meet our NYADA friends and Brody. Oh, I forgot about Brody. He's amazing…" she droned.

As Rachel blabbed on and on, I took the moment to actually look at her. Gone were the animal sweaters and the knee high socks. Her usual outfit of grandad loafers, knee high socks, a plaid skirt, and an animal printed sweater had been replaced with a high but sensible heel, a leather skirt and an off the shoulder black sweater. I was impressed. If I didn't know how overly dramatic and egotistical she was I'd say that she was hot, which is not a compliment I give out lightly.

"Santana? Santana!"

"What? What did you say GayBerry?" I pondered distractedly, "You lost me at NYADA friends."

"I was just telling you of all the good things that we could do in New York," She began with irritation and an over the top eye roll, "and I was letting you know that I was heading out but there's some vegan lasagna in the 'fridge. Or you could just order take out, we have menus onto of the microwave." She finished after taking note of my appalled look at even the mention of vegan lasagna.

"Ok thanks, Hobbit. You're dismissed now."

"Santana I'm glad you're here and all but please do not ruin my apartment while I'm gone. I trust that you are competent enough to handle this simple task." She called over her shoulder as she closed the door.

I went and locked the door before turning around and observing the apartment. There was a small TV with loads of Broadway musicals littering the general area the TV was in. A rather uncomfortable looking couch sat a few feet in front of the TV and the living room table. Books, playbills and Broadway soundtracks covered the bookcase extensively and one shelf was self-dedicated in its entirety to Rachel and the awards that she had accumulated over the years. I sighed exasperatedly and trudged over to the kitchen in hopes of finding these takeout menus that Rachel spoke of. It was shocking yet not surprising considering Berry how everything was organized and labeled accordingly. I scanned the kitchen, specifically the area surrounding the microwave, in hopes that I could find those menus and thanked god when I spotted them behind a loaf of bread on top of the microwave.

"Italian, Greek, Mexican, Cuban, Thai…" I mumbled to myself indecisively smiling victoriously when I spied the menu for a Chinese place that delivered.

As I was scanning the menu the familiar text tone of my phone and flashing light caught my attention. I went over to see who had texted me to only see that it was an unknown number. That was odd. As of late I hadn't unknowingly exchanged numbers with anyone nor had I gone out of my way to meet someone knew. I gasped almost knowingly as I read the bland text that held so much more than it showed.

I smiled goofily as I reread the text, at least, four more times before I ordered with a lopsided grin adorning my face and the text on my mind.

 _My name's Elliot._


End file.
